Friday, September 25, 2009

Iggy whines about the deficit, then Iggy whines the Conservatives aren't spending fast enough, then Iggy whines that the spending is focused on Conservative ridings... hm, like helping bail out incompetent Toronto mayor David David Miller? Now that Davo is not running again, that's welcome news and a good riddance to bad garbage. Take your broom and shove it, Davo. However, slimy Liberal George Slitherman, the Liberal fu*kup health minister, is being touted as the new saviour of Toronto. That'll make folks wish for the good ol days of Miller!) Iggy whines that the Conservatives have only spent a portion of the "stimulus funds" (aka raised taxes and deficits) - so what, that can be seen as actually a good thing... how much has Iggy's hero Obama spent?! Maybe all of it doesn't NEED 'to be spent' - maybe we DON'T NEED these grand stimulus deficit-adding spending sprees, especially as both American and Canadian economists and bankers are saying there are signs of a recovery! Let's hear St. Catharines Liberal MPP Jim Bradley complain about the "stimulus spending" in St. Catharines! Come on Jimmy - will you join in Iggy's and Gerard Kennedy's federal Liberal whining?? Gosh, Good Ole Jimmy's awful quiet about Iggy's and Gerry Kennedy's partisan bullshit. Let's hear newly-acclaimed St. Catharines federal Liberal candidate Andrew Gill whine about the spending in St. Catharines! Iggy whines about how everybody in the world - according to blustery Iggy! - knew about "the recession" - yet Iggy conveniently overlooks and doesn't mention why then Good Ole provincial Liberal Dwight Duncan keeps revising his ONTARIO LIBERAL deficits - now to some $18 BILLION!! Ignatieff selectively ignores the incompetence in his own Liberal-run province. Gosh, Iggy - why didn't Dunco or Dalton or Jimmy Bradley know about "the recession" - were McGuinty's Ontario Liberals deliberately lying when THEY understated their deficit projections?!Oh, Iggy... you're so full of it.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Just heard David Letterman (Sept.21, 2009 show), along with his guest, Obama, blabbing about Canada's health system. Sounds good to me, says Letterman. Maybe millionaire Letterman wouldn't mind waiting behind Bill Clinton for his heart surgery in Ontario's health monopoly. F#*ing ignorant turd. Obama didn't explain though, why he cannot then foist such a single-payer monopolist health care charade onto Americans; and why he repeatedly says that the Canadian health system is NOT his model. By the way, many Canadians thank the Americans for having a health system which is available for us when ours isn't. Yeah - the vacuous medium is the message.

When Liberal Wayne Easter spouts partisan crap about ten-percenters - as he did with Jim Richards on CFRB, Oct.16, 2009 - perhaps he should look at the giant "LIBERAL" logo at the bottom right of Ujjal's smelly missive. Will Ujjal's Liberal POOP-O-GRAM also be part of the Liberal's submission to the ethics commissioner?

Corey Larocque wrote in “Hudak wants to fix ‘broken’ health system, (Niagara Falls Review, Sept.18, 2009):
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“Ontario needs an "overhaul" of the hospital administration structure that allowed the closure of emergency rooms at Douglas Memorial Hospital and Port Colborne General, says provincial Conservative Leader Tim Hudak.
But he won't commit to return to having hospitals run by local boards of directors, the way they were until the late 1990s when the previous Conservative government scrapped them.
"We're going to have to overhaul McGuinty's broken LHIN scheme," Hudak said in an interview Thursday.
Premier Dalton McGuinty's government created Local Health Integration Networks across the province to oversee the corporations that manage hospitals. There's a LHIN in each of 14 regions across the province, including one that serves Hamilton, Niagara, Haldimand and Brant County.
"We oppose the LHIN's decision to close down the emergency rooms in those two hospitals," Hudak said.
He called it a "shame" the McGuinty government imposed a new health tax in its first budget in 2004, but is "ripping services" out of Niagara.
"Our most important goal is to hold this government to account and to fight the closure of these services in Niagara."
In creating LHINs, the government's goal was to decentralize some of the decision-making from the Ministry of Health in Toronto and put it closer to the regions where the hospitals operate.
But Hudak said it has created a level of unelected, "largely anonymous" bureaucrats who aren't accountable for their decisions.
Hudak made the comments to The Niagara Falls Review Thursday, the day after Conservative MPP John O'Toole made a statement in Queen's Park condemning the closure of the emergency rooms in Fort Erie and Port Colborne.
On Wednesday, a group of Fort Erie hospital supporters visited Queen's Park to put pressure on the government to intervene.
The Niagara Health System announced the controversial ER closures more than a year ago as part of its hospital improvement plan.
The improvement plan was ordered by the LHIN to get the NHS to balance its budget.
After a year of heated debate, community rallies -including one that led to arrests of three protestors -and intense political pressure, Douglas Memorial's emergency room is scheduled to be downgraded to an urgent care centre by the end of this month. Port Colborne's has already been converted.
A Conservative government would get advice from taxpayers and health-care professionals about what kind of administration structure would work better than a LHIN, Hudak said.
The controversy of the hospital improvement plan has left some local politicians questioning why decisions that affect individual communities like Fort Erie and Port Colborne have to be made by a regional corporation based in St. Catharines.
Niagara Falls Coun. Carolynn Ioannoni said she questioned Hudak during the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference in Ottawa in August.
She said she wanted Hudak to commit to abolishing the LHINs, if he becomes premier, and return to the way hospitals were managed by local boards.
Ioannoni reported to council Monday that Hudak gave a safe political answer, saying he would study the issue before agreeing to bring back the local board of directors system.
"The room was full of AMO (municipal) politicians and they kind of groaned. I was looking for a yes or no. The answer was really asinine," Ioannoni said.”
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What’s truly asinine is Liberal-supporter Carolynn Ioanonni’s response to Hudak trying to open a local dialogue on the health care issue. Ioannonni is acting as a pathetic party partisan.

What’s asinine is Carolynn Ioanonni not understanding that her own ideological Liberal health care monopolists are the ones responsible for the health cuts in Niagara.

What’s asinine is Carolynn Ioanonni wanting to go to Liberal hack Dalton McGuinty for help – as if McGuinty had nothing to do with creating, funding, appointing, and directing the LHIN’s!!
That’s like going for help to the criminal extortionist who just robbed you.
South Niagara got hung out to dry by the Liberals - just ask the hoodwinked-by-his-own-Liberals buffoon Vance Badawey...

When did Ioanonni ever ask her own asinine Liberal health monopolists - Smitherman, Caplan, Bradley, Craitor, or McGuinty - to 'abolish the LHIN's'?!

Can Ioanonni publicly show she made the same demands of McGuinty's monopolist Liberal health-care-cutters and tax-increasers??

And, can Ioannoni provide public copies of the responses (if any!) that she received from them?!
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In the 2015 federal election the obviously pink-Liberal Ioanonni ended up running for Thomas Mulcair's divisive NDP socialists in the Niagara Falls riding.
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Remember Liberal-socialist MP Bob Rae saying his party is committed to maintaining the home renovation tax credit?Well, on Sept.18, 2009, Bob Rae, Michael Ignatieff and their divisive federal Liberals voted against the home renovation credit! Iggy said that it felt good to vote against the government's measures!! Nice to know that, Iggy. flip-flop, flip-flopThe Liberal spin, several months later, will be that of course they supported it in theory, but didn't actuallyhave to support it when it came time to do so, seeing as someone else would do their work - by actually (rather than virtually) supporting the credit - for them!Clear as mud - as clear as this continuation to my earlier July 26, 2009 post about Liberal Michael Ignatieff pouring revisionist syrup on his coalition waffle:

Regarding revisionist Iggy re-writing his own complicity in signing and supporting StephaneBumbledore Dion's Cuckoo Coalition, we now have pinko-Grit Bob Rae also spinning lies about Ignatieff's part in supporting Dion's desperate gambit for power during Dec. 2007.Read it - and hear Bob Rae deliver his bald-faced lies/ distorted factual acrobatics - over at Alberta Ardvark in "Bob Rae lies about the coalition":

Apparently, we are now supposed to believe, as Bob Rae ridiculously says, that "there was no coalition with the Bloc".What?!We all know there was a three-party coalition, signed by The Three Stooges: Dion, Duceppe and Layton.The technicality being used to absolve Iggy's part in Dion's coalition fiasco is that Iggy did not sign the actual main coalition agreement - as (obviously) he was not Liberal leader at the time.So: by Iggy not having signed "the" coalition agreement (which would have been weird if he did, seeing that Dion was the leader!) are we now supposed to interpret this as somehow proving that Iggy did not support it?!Iggy not only publicly supported Dion's coalition, he endorsed it by signing the coalition's letter to the Governor General.To now attempt to sanitize Ignatieff's tarnished image, and to pretend that Iggy did not support and endorse Dion's three-party coalition - which included the Bloc all along - is an absurd splitting of hairs.

On their first Canadian tour, famed Ukrainian band HAYDAMAKY performed at the Toronto Ukrainian Festival in the Bloor West Village St. on Sat. Sept.19, 2009. Bloor St.W. was packed wall to wall with thousands of fans as HAYDAMAKY rocked out an awesome, energetic two hour set.

Friday, September 11, 2009

below: looking in an easterly direction along Bridgewater St. (running at the left) in Chippawa, just south of the Welland River Bridge. The Welland river is just on the left side of Bridgewater St., out of frame, hence the name Riverside Hotel. Date not known. Note the storefronts visible behind the hotel.

above: same view, Sept.1, 2009, the rear portion of the building is still operating as the Riverside Tavern.below: looking from slightly further south. Looks like a nice neon sign was hanging off the corner over the sidewalk.

above: same view, Sept.1, 2009. The building that was next door to the right, the corner of which is seen seen in the two previous older photos above, has been demolished.

*below: Feb.25, 1953 - looking at the storefronts at the rear of the Riverside Hotel (which is at the far right), from across Bridgewater St., seen in the foreground.

These storefronts directly faced the Welland River, which was just across the street.

There looks to be a River View Inn at the left; Connie's Lunch further to the right; and perhaps another storefront further right, behind the Riverside Hotel. These storefronts were clearly visible in the boat-scene part of Marilyn Monroe's film Niagara. These storefronts can also be seen in the first top photo.

above: Sept.1, 2009 - the storefronts behind the Riverside have since been demolished.

It's been a month since CFRB talk show co-host Tarek Fatah made his wild Aug.12, 2009 radio accusation that Shona Holmes 'was being paid by the insurance companies' when she appeared in the U.S. ad describing how Dalton McGuinty's Ontario Liberal-run health monopoly almost killed her. After Fatah's baseless comment on Aug.12, 2009, co-host Michael Coren even asked Fatah if he would apologize should his accusation be wrong. When will Fatah apologize for his dismissive and unproven claim?

Thursday, September 10, 2009

below: 1904 - looking north at the forebay of the Canadian Niagara Power (Rankine) generating station under construction. Note the horse teams at work. below: same view, as the Canadian Niagara Powerhouse takes shape, note water now in forebay.

above: same view, 2009, at the now-closed generating station. Note the infamous Wall of Hotels, the Wall at the Falls, on the distant ridge.

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below: the Electrical Development Co. powerhouse under construction, also known as the Toronto Power generating station.

above: same view, 2009. This station has been closed for years.

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below: looking at the north-side of the Dufferin Islands water-intake gatehouse, which was (and still is) located above the Horseshoe Falls, along River Rd.; the water pipeline seen being installed ran in a northerly direction, down to the Ontario Power Co. generating station's surge tank, which was located on River Rd. slightly downstream from the Falls, as seen further below.

above: same view, Sept.10, 2009, the water conduit is below the grass. An access hatch is in the lawn. The building is now used for Parks dept. storage. A healthy elm tree grows at the right.

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below: a view of the construction, looking north along River Rd., as the pipelines join the surge tanks.

above: 2009 - the pipelines were buried and landscaped, as can be seen at the left. Note the small white access building (seen above in the centre bottom) is also in the previous photo. The surge tanks fed the power station, which was located below them, at the bottom of the gorge, just above the Lower Niagara River, just past the Horseshoe Falls.

*below: Looking south along River Rd., date of photo not known. NFLA notes this is Thomas Barnett's Niagara Falls Museum, built 1859, opened in 1860, and demolished in 1903 to make way for the Ontario Power Generating station surge tank (seen above, from the south); and for the Refectory restaurant, which opened in 1904, just north of the tank. Mr. Barnett owned the museum until 1877, at which time he sold it to his competitor, Saul Davis.

History book Niagara Falls Canada notes that "a distillery near the site of the present Refectory was in existence in 1818 and the old stone building was bought by Col. Thomas Barnett in 1830 for his Natural History Museum." After Queen Victoria Park was opened to the public (on Victoria Day - naturally! - May 24, 1888) a part of the old Barnett's building was leased out by the Parks Commission to house the Dufferin Restaurant.

above: same view - the Ontario Power Company surge tanks (now inoperative) are in the left distance; Barnett's museum once stood about where the former Refectory restaurant still stands now, at the near right.

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below: ca.1910 - closer view of the surge tank and observation tower accessed through the round top stone entrance at the side.

above: 2009, same view - the top is now closed to the public, and houses the lighting equipment for illuminating the Falls at night.
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below: ca.1829-30, a drawing by James Pattison Cockburn of the Pavilion Hotel, on Portage Rd. at (today's) Fallsview Blvd. This was the first hotel in Stamford Township, built in 1822 by William Forsyth. Its balconies had the best Falls view of the day.
This drawing would have been still before the days of the railroad, which later would be built just east (to the right) of the front of the hotel.

below: The Oakes hotel tower under construction, Jan.2, 1980. This prime site (at the north east corner of Portage Rd. and Fallsview Ave.) was where the above Pavilion Hotel once stood, at the top of the moraine overlooking the Falls:

above: same view, Aug.11, 2009; the hotel facade has been renovated since the time of the last photo. Note the parking area in the foreground; it was built overtop of the former Erie and Ontario / Michigan Central / New York Central railroad line, when it was still running trains through the Niagara Falls city core. The track was closed in 2001. Below view is of underneath the parking deck:

above: Aug. 2009, a view (looking south) of the tunnel where the tracks once ran; above is the Oakes hotel parking area; farther at the end of the tunnel is the actual Portage Rd. overpass. Just south of this tunnel is where Inspiration Point, the Michigan Central Railroad's famous Falls View train lookout used to be, just slightly below and to the north of the (now-closed) Loretto Academy. Yes, I remember when the trains ran through here regularly.

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below: former Fralick's Tavern on the north side of Lundy's Lane, halfway between Main St. and Drummond Ave., as seen, noted by the NFLA, in Oct. 1946.

below: in 1850, Adam Fralick built a tall wooden lookout tower beside his tavern for tourists, which overlooked the Lundy's Lane battlefield. (the date of this photo is noted by NFLA as also being Oct, 1946, although the leaves are still on trees, unlike previous photo)

below: a postcard view of the Niagara Glen Inn, once a stop on the Great Gorge streetcar route, as seen by the tracks at the bottom.

above: same view, Sept. 2009.

*below: Lady by the Falls, May 1976.

above: Lady by the Falls, Sept.1, 2009.

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Older photos in this study are from the NFLA - Niagara Falls (Ontario) library archives; the recent photos are by R. Bobak.
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To see the next post in this series, go to PART 15
or, start at the beginning of my Niagara Falls Then and Now series at Part ONE.

below: looking west, into Niagara Falls, Ont., Canada, from the deck of the Fallsview (also called Honeymoon; or, also, the Upper Steel Arch) Bridge. Photo date thought to be some time during WWI. Note the Queen's Hotel at the right, conveniently across from the bridge, on River Rd. Note the Great Gorge Route streetcar tracks on the bridge. There was only one set of tracks on this bridge, as the streetcar route travelled in a loop: here the streetcars arrived into Canada from the U.S.; then travelled along the top of the ridge down to the Queenston-Lewiston Suspension Bridge, where they crossed back into the States; travelling along the river's edge along much of the American side, they slowly climbed back up to cross the Honeymoon Bridge again.

above: Sept.20, 1927 - the Queen's Hotel stands deserted as construction of the new Terminal Tower transit hub takes place next to it at the right (north) side. The Queen's was formerly called the Cliff Hotel, built by Phillip Bender in 1872.

above: Oct.6, 1927 - the Queen's Hotel in Niagara Falls, Ont. is seen under partial demolition. Note the progress of the new building to the right. (I have read in Seibel's book that the Queen's Hotel was moved from here on River Rd. in 1926 to its current site on St.Paul St. W. - but these pictures show differently. The building must have been dissassembled and actually moved from this site, very soon after this photo was taken - sometime between Oct.6, 1927 to Nov.8, 1927.

above: By Nov.29, 1927, the Queen's Hotel was clearly gone. This view looks west from the deck of the Honeymoon (aka Fallsview) Bridge into Canada. The newly-built Terminal Tower, with its lookout windows still not finished, is seen across the street at the right, just north of the now-vacant lot where the Queen's Hotel had stood a month or so earlier. The grand Community Plate building is seen at the end of its long lawn, up the hill in the left distance; the Dominion Chain factory is in the centre-right distance. Note the Great Gorge route streetcar just arriving off the bridge into Canada from the United States!

above: Nov.8, 1927 - the Queen's Hotel was dissassembled and removed in about a month, because the structure was still partially standing on Oct.6, 1927, as was seen by the earlier previous photo. The building had stood on the now-vacant area in the foreground.
Note the crooked utility pole standing at the corner, at the center-right, with a sign on it - this same pole with the sign can be seen in the above four photos.
In the distance, the new Tower Terminal, seen still without its roof shingles, was being built to become a new streetcar transit hub. To the right, looking north, can be seen the buildings that once fronted onto River Rd. Note signs on the Tower Terminal for Piggott Healy construction from Hamilton, who must have been the contractors for the structure.
The Piggott construction firm had done a lot of work in Niagara: they had also built the 11-storey, 260-room General Brock hotel in record time: 6 months! (opened Jul.1, 1929); they built the second Table Rock House (opened in 1926); also built the deco styled Niagara Falls Post Office on Queen St. and St.Clair Ave.(opened Jan. 1931); they built the NFCVI school in Epworth Circle in 1949, as well as the Skylon tower (opened 1965)
The architects for the Piggott-built Table Rock were Findlay and Foulis, who had not only done a lot of work for the Niagara Parks Commission, but in 1928 they also designed the 'new' Oak Hall for Sir Harry Oakes. In 1927-1928, Findlay and Foulis also designed - and Piggott built - another Loretto convent and school in the then-outskirts of Toronto, near Yonge and Wilson. Findlay and Foulis also designed the 'new' St. Patrick's Roman Catholic School on Victoria Ave. and Maple St., in 1927; the Queen Victoria Park Refectory for the Parks Commission in 1926; and the Queen Victoria Park Administrative Building for the Parks Commission in 1927.

Finlay's partner James Foulis died in Niagara falls in 1932, at the age of 50. After Foulis' death, Findlay and Mann supervised the reconstruction of the Niagara Loretto academy after the major fire of 1938. Claude Findlay went to become president of Welland Securities (Sir Harry Oakes' private investment firm, which for a while used the 1856-built Samuel Zimmerman Clifton Hill gatehouse as their office!) and he died in Niagara falls in 1965.

above: further regarding the fate of the Queen's Hotel - the original structure of the Queen's Hotel still does exist in Niagara Falls - it is now on St.Paul Ave. The placemat ad above states that the Queen's Hotel was originally built in 1872 by Philip Bender, and was known as the Cliff House. But interestingly, it also states that the River Rd. building was disassembled in 1926 and rebuilt - yet, the previous photos clearly show that the building was still there on River Rd. on Oct.6, 1927, and it was gone by Nov.8, 1927: so the 1926 date cannot be correct. That the building was actually carefully taken apart, and not demolished, gives meaning to the Oct.6, 1927 photo, which shows that the building was being neatly stripped, instead of simply being bulldozed within a matter of hours, as it otherwise surely would have been.

above: looking to the rear of the Tower Terminal, the stub-end streetcar tracks are seen - along with a two-lane Roberts St. - going up the Newman Hill cut. The Queen's Hotel had stood next door (at the very bottom of the photo, where the line of cars are) which now seems to be a parking lot. The newly-built curving Falls Ave. can be seen running at the upper left; at the far left, out of frame, would be the front of the General Brock Hotel - which may or may not have been built yet, seeing as the date of this particular photo is not known. The Honeymoon Bridge was at the far right bottom, out of frame, just across River Rd. This photo was most likely taken from either a balcony or window of the neighbouring Lafayette Hotel (see more further below). Seeing as the Lafayette was demolished in 1934, then at least we can say that this photo is from 1934 or earlier.
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below: the Tower Terminal is complete, its popular public lookout windows installed in the tower; NFLA notes this photo as 'ca.1930'; but, by 1930, the huge General Brock Hotel (which opened Jul.1, 1929) should already have been seen looming in the background from this view, which is looking in a north-westerly direction from the entrance to the Honeymoon Bridge.
Therefore, the below photo is likely from some time prior to the autumn of 1928 (seeing as the tree is still in leaf), taken before the steel framework of the General Brock Hotel went up (construction started on the Brock in Jan.1929). The Tower Terminal was demolished in late 1940 to allow for the construction of the new Rainbow Bridge and its associated plaza. The streetcar tracks were removed from Roberts St. up the Newman cut, making way for a four-lane automobile connection to the also-new Queen Elizabeth highway! The Queen's Hotel had stood at the far left, where the parking lot is now seen.

above: Sept.11, 2009 - this is the same view as above, looking northward, standing with my back facing the river; the old Queen's Hotel and the Tower Terminal were once located in the area just at the right, where the yellow flowers are. To the far left (out of frame) of the above photo was where the grand Hotel Lafayette once stood; it was just across from where the Queen's Hotel was once located; it was torn down in 1934)

above: the turreted Hotel LaFayette, built in 1894, was also just across River Rd. from the Honeymoon Bridge. Coming into Canada over the Honeymoon Bridge, a visitor would see the LaFayette standing across the street, just to the left (south); and would see the Queen's Hotel just to the right (north) of the bridge entrance. This view is looking at the LaFayette from the north east: the bridge in this case would have been across River Rd. to the farleft of photo, just out of frame. The Queen's Hotel would have been at the far right, just out of frame. Date of photo not known. Note streetcar tracks on River Rd.

above: Sept.11, 2009 - The Hotel LaFayette had stood here at the centre-left of photo, where Oakes Garden now is. The famous Clifton Hotel had been located directly next door (further to the left, south) of the Hotel LaFayette, along River Rd. (For reference, the fountain in the right foreground is the same one in the second-above previous photo) Harry Oakes bought the Lafayette, and the burned-out Clifton Hotel which had stood next door (to the left) and gifted the land to the city for this garden.
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below: Spring of 1928: looking north along River Rd., here, the (2nd) Clifton Hotel is at the left, and the Hotel LaFayette is in the distance; and then the Terminal Tower station is seen farther down. The gable of the border office of the Honeymoon Bridge is behind the trees at the right. Note the track wye of the Great Gorge streetcar route in the foreground. Right behind where the photographer was standing would have been the entrance building to the Clifton Incline.

above: Nov.1, 2010 - this is the same view as above, from the same place, looking north along River Rd. - nothing of what was seen in the 1928 photo remains standing in 2010.

above: same view as the previous 'Spring of 1928' photo, but a little closer, as referenced by the streetcar track wye which is seen in both shots. This above view is looking north along River Rd. after the (second) Clifton Hotel was destroyed by a massive fire on Dec.31, 1932; the Lafayette is seen at the far right; the General Brock hotel is seen in the center distance. Date of photo not known, most likely early 1933. The LaFayette was torn down in 1934; its lot, along with that of the former Clifton Hotel, made way for the Oakes Garden, seen previously and below:

above: looking north along River Rd. as seen Sept.11, 2009. The entrance to the Honeymoon Bridge (which collapsed into the gorge in 1938) was once just on the other side of the building seen in the right distance. Along the left, where Oakes Garden now runs, was where the Clifton Hotel, the LaFayette, the Queen's Hotel, and the Terminal Tower, had once stood.
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below: looking north-west from Clifton Hill and River Rd. at the Oakes Garden promenade. Note the Carillon under construction at the far right. The General Brock hotel is in the centre distance.
(note, the NFLA dates this photo as 1943, but, by looking at the scaffolding still attached to the side of the Carillon (at the far right), it still appears to be under construction - the same way it looks in another photo slightly further below (where the Carillon scaffolding is also seen, and which the NFLA says is from 1942); so the date of this photo must be the summer of 1942, not '43)

above: same view of the lush Oakes Garden promenade, on a quiet Sept.11, 2009. The Carillon is seen at the far right in both photos.

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below: Summer of '42 - looking south along the mid-level of the new Rainbow Bridge Plaza; Oakes Garden is in the distance. In the foreground was where the rear of the old Terminal Tower had once stood, along with the stub-end streetcar tracks.

above: same view, on a rainy July 29, 2009; a canopy now extends beyond the original round columns.

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below: Summer of '42 - looking north along the same part of the Rainbow Plaza - the Carillon is seen here under construction, as scaffolding is seen at its right side. Now, a 'new' Bus Terminal is on the upper deck at the left (no more streetcars, no more Terminal Tower). A corner of the Brock Hotel is seen at the far upper left.

above: same view; the upper deck is no longer a bus terminal, but a duty free shop for the border.

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below: Summer of '42 - looking at the new Rainbow Plaza from River Rd.; the Brock Hotel is in the right rear. This is where the Terminal Tower had once stood, with the streetcar tracks out back, which curved up and to the right, to the Newman cut.

above: Summer of '09 - same view, Aug.18, 2009

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below: Fall of 1944, view of Oakes Garden, looking north along River Rd.

Note the Clifton Gate Memorial Arch (which opened Jun.18, 1938) at the right: it had stood just to the south of the old entrance to the Honeymoon Bridge (which collapsed on Jan.27, 1938); just in front of where the Lafayette Hotel (torn down in 1934) was once located.

above: same view, Sept. 11, 2009

above: same area on a snowy Jan.8, 2009. The Rainbow Bridge is seen clearly in the upper right distance. The old Honeymoon Bridge entrance was immediately at the far side of the square building seen at the right. This was also designed by Findlay and Foulis architects in 1928 for Canadian Customs and Immigration Department.

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below: most likely spring of 1929 - the General Brock Hotel under construction in Niagara Falls, Ont., fronting onto on a newly-built Falls Ave. The Piggott construction company built the 11-storey, 260-room Brock Hotel in an astounding six months - it opened on Jul.1, 1929. The architects were Findlay and Foulis.

above: same view, Aug. 2009; now, at the left, on the former Oneida Community Plate Co. lawn, is the entrance to a casino.

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below: closer view of the General Brock Hotel being built (date must be spring of 1929); the sign notes "Open early summer 1929"

above: same view, Aug.2009

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below: a postcard view of the U.S. side of the river from Queen Victoria Park, date not known.

above: same view, Sept.4, 2009; the same tree can be seen at the left, photo by R.Bobak.

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below: looking at the reconstruction of the slope at Murray Hill, at about the time Casino Niagara's construction was ending.

above: same view, July 2009.

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below: looking at the Holiday Inn construction at the top of Murray Hill, on the north east corner of Murray St. and Buchanan Ave. (which is now called Fallsview Blvd.) Photo date not known. Murray Hill (going down) would be just to the right of photo.

below: Mar. 1966 - an earlier view of the same above corner, looking down Murray Hill - a hydro building stood on the site.

above: same view, 2009, looking down Murray St. towards Fallsview Blvd. (formerly Buchanan Ave.) It appears to be the same canopy in both views of the hotel at the bottom left.
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Older photos in this study are from the Niagara Falls, Ont. Library Archive (NFLA); the recent photos are by R. Bobak.
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